Baku possesses 400, but a single one of those 400 wells has thrown up as much oil in a day as nearly the whole of the 25,000 in America put together. This is very wonderful; but a more striking fact is that the copiousness of the well should have ruined its owners, and broken the heart of the engineer who bored it, after having yielded enough oil in four months to have realized in America at least one million sterling. In Pennsylvania that fountain would have made its owner's fortune; there is £11,000 worth of oil flowing out of the well every day; here it has made the owner a bankrupt.' These words were addressed to me by an American petroleum engineer, as I stood alongside of a well that had burst the previous morning, and out of which the oil was flying twice the height of the Great Geyser in Iceland, with a roar that could be heard several miles round. The fountain was a splendid spectacle, it was the largest ever known at Baku. When the first outburst took place the oil had knocked off the roof and part of the sides of the derrick, but there was a beam left at the top, against which the oil broke with a roar in its upward course, and which served in a measure to check its velocity. The derrick itself was seventy feet high, and the oil and the sand after bursting through the roof and sides flowed fully three times higher, forming a grayish-black fountain, the column clearly defined on the southern side, but merging into a cloud of spray thirty yards broad on the other. A strong southerly wind enabled us to approach within a few yards of the crater on the former side, and to look down into the sandy

basin formed around about the bottom of the derrick, where the oil was bubbling and seething. round the stalk of the oil-shoot like a geyser. The diameter of the tube up which the oil was rushing was 10 inches. On issuing from this the fountain formed a clearly defined stem about 18 inches thick, and shot up to the top of the derrick, where in striking against the beam, which was already half-worn through by the friction, it got broadened out a little. Thence continuing its course, more than 200 feet high, it curled over and fell in a dense cloud to the ground on the north side, formed a sand bank, over which the olive-colored oil ran in innumerable channels towards the lakes of petroleum that had been formed on the surrounding estates. Now and again the sand flowing up with the oil would obstruct the pipe, or a stone would clog the course; then the column would sink for a few seconds lower than 200 feet, to rise directly afterwards with a burst and a roar to 300 feet. Some idea

of the mass of matter thrown up from the well could be formed by a glance at the damage done on the south side in twenty-four hours; a vast shoal of sand having been formed which had buried to the roof some magazines and shops, and had blocked to the height of six or seven feet all the neighboring derricks within a distance of fifty yards. Standing on the top of the sand shoal we could see where the oil, after flowing through a score of channels from the ooze, formed in the distance or lower · ground a whole series of oil lakes, some broad enough and deep enough to row a boat in. Beyond this the oil could

be seen flowing away in a broad channel towards the sea. This celebrated well, from the best estimates that could be made, gushed forth its oil treasure at the rate of two million gallons per day' from a depth of 574 feet. A remarkable fact is also stated, that, notwithstanding these 400 wells are so closely situated to each other, there appears to be no connection with the subterranean reservoirs which supply the oil.

"Near the village of Strikhoff, at Bibi Aibat, a short time ago, there were four wells giving oil within a few yards of one another; yet all at different depths, the first at 259 feet, the second at 560, the third at 280 feet, and the fourth at 350. Close to them was a more striking instance: An old well existed 70 feet deep, which for generations had furnished petroleum. The engineers set up a derrick a few yards from it, expecting to get oil readily at about the same depth, but did not strike any until they had penetrated 420 feet. If the oil were collected in a single reservoir, or in basins joined to one another, it is obvious that the fountains that often occur would exhaust the surrounding localities. The Droojba fountain, for example, which I saw spouting oil at the rate of two million gallons per diem, would have ruined all the neighboring wells of a lesser depth had the reservoir been a general one. As a matter of fact, while it was shooting its oil 300 feet high, the wells a stone's throw off were giving their daily supply of petroleum, totally unaffected by it. Many pumping wells have been worked for years without the level of the oil being lowered in the

slightest degree, or the wells in any way affected by discharges from adjoining fountains proceeding from greater or lesser depths. The peninsula of Apsheron is probably honeycombed with thousands of oil-cells. One of these cells, belonging to Kokereff, has already given a million and a half of barrels of oil, and yet the pump draws the oil as freely and as readily to the surface as when the basin was first tapped by the boring bit years ago."

From the records which have been kept, it appears that from the deepest wells have issued the most oil. As a general rule, the borer begins to look for appearances of oil at or about the depth of a hundred feet; if it is reached at that depth in paying quantities, it is allowed to flow or it is pumped until it is exhausted. The engineer then begins to bore again until another oil cell is reached; this process is continued until a more copious supply is reached which is expected to last for years. In 1883 two flowing wells in less than a month upheaved nearly 30,000,000 gallons of oil apiece from a depth of 700 feet, and when they were plugged to preserve their supply for future use, they were still flowing at a rate of about 20,000 gallons of oil per diem.

That the supply of petroleum in this district is enormous is beyond all controversy. It is not questioned by any who have personally inspected it.

The oil is brought from the wells eight or nine miles distant to the refineries which are at Black Town, a short distance outside of Baku, by a number of pipe-line companies, the largest of which is that of the Nobel Brothers,

which has the capacity of delivering 4,000,000 gallons annually to their refineries.

To further illustrate the enormous yield from these wells it may be proper to notice the accounts given of some of the larger wells. Many of the largest have been plugged up to prevent actual waste. Nobel Brothers have thus closed fourteen of their wells, and wait for a rise in the price of oil. One of these ejected 112,000 tons during the first four weeks before it was sealed up. In 1875, the third flowing well in this district was struck, bringing to its owners 600,000 gallons per diem. The following year the same company (The Company of Petroleum Participators) struck another flowing well. At the depth of 280 feet, through an iron pipe of 6 inches in diameter, the oil was thrown up with great force, and continued to flow at the rate of 270,000 gallons daily for three months.

In 1877, another concern, the Orbelovi Brothers, obtained a flowing well at the depth of 210 feet, with a bore of 10 inches, which proved to be one of the largest in this district. The oil spouted slightly a few days and was then capped, but in making some improvements afterwards to cap, the pressure below burst it off the tube, and the petroleum issued with a fury nothing could check. In half an hour a reservoir, holding 40,000 gallons was filled, and then the oil ran all over the place, forming a series of lakes. This fountain never spouted less than 40,000 gallons per day, and sometimes reached 1,200,000 gallons. It was estimated that forty million gallons of oil were lost before this "gusher" was subdued. As an instance, both